Organization For
Campus Women
http://www.uwlax.edu/OCW
May 2003
Happy Mother's Day!
Headlines...
OCW Family Picnic - May 6
Academic Year 2003-2004 Programming Plans
OCW Scholarship Award
YWCA Tribute to Outstanding Women seeks membership
N ew OCW Steering Committee members
OCW Spring Symposium Review
Presenting...Sandy Sechrest
WWHEL Workshop
Yogalates
2003 Women In Leadership Forum
Women Web Sites
Mother's Day Article
On a
we will go...
Please join OCW for a Family Picnic
Tuesday, May 6, 4:30 – 6:30 pm
Myrick Park Gun Shelter
All food and drink are provided!!!
Academic Year 2003-2004 Programming Plans
The OCW Programming Committee is excited to share some of the plans being developed for next year. l
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A campus site will be showcased each semester as a “UW-L Campus Behind-the-Scenes Tour”. This
showcase will allow the opportunity to learn more about the exceptional resources right here on campus.
Mark your calendar for the Annual OCW Holiday Social, Tuesday, December 9.
UW-L women’s sporting event, preceded by refreshments at the Eagles Nest (spring semester).
Book Club Review – solicit book titles and recommend a book for OCW members to read. Gather for
discussion, wine and cheese (once each semester).
OCW Scholarship Award
by Mary Berling, Chair of the Scholarship committee
Jennifer Viner is the 2003 OCW Scholarship Award recipient. This year’s award is $1300. Jennifer is a single mom
with two young boys. She receives minimal child care support if any at all. Jennifer works 30 hours on the
weekends as a food server to support herself and her boys while she attends school fulltime. She is pursuing a
major in psychology, with dreams of pursuing a masters degree in counseling. On her scholarship application,
she stated she wants to obtain her degree so that she may become “self-sufficient, no longer need county
assistance, and have a career that I enjoy”. In Jennifer’s words, this scholarship award will help her to “focus my
energy and attention on studying and being a good mother.”
Y-Tribute Committee Seeks Committee Members OCW is seeking individuals that may be interested in serving on this committee. As a committee member
you will help to develop a list of women from UWL to be nominated for the annual Y-Tribute to
Outstanding Women award. This award is given by the YWCA each fall. If you are interested in serving as
a committee member and/or want more information, please contact Sharie Brunk at 5-6950 or email her
at brunk.shar@uwlax.edu.
The purpose of the Tribute is to bring community recognition to those special women who have demonstrated
exceptional leadership ability and skills. Women are selected from nominations submitted by area community
organizations, companies, corporations, small businesses and individuals to receive the highest recognition, an
Outstanding Achievement award. These awards are given in recognition of an individual's high level of
accomplishment, as well as contributions to the life of the Coulee Region Community.
New Steering Committee Members
The votes have been tallied and the new Steering Committee Members are:
Sharie Brunk – Academic Staff
Faith Pawelski – Academic Staff
Kari Heilman – Classified
Hulya Yaczi – Faculty
Mao Zheng – Faculty
Congratulations and welcome to our new members. The last Steering Committee meeting of the year will be
held on Wednesday, May 14 at Noon in Cartwright Center. OCW Spring 2003 Symposium
The OCW Symposium Committee is receiving positive feedback on the recent symposium. We would like to thank
the speakers and all of the attendees for making this a successful event. A special thanks to Sandy Sechrest for
her work on the committee for many years, in addition to her role as OCW Treasurer--we wish you the best in
retirement! If you have ideas on what you would like to learn about in future symposia, or suggestions and preferences
regarding format, speakers, etc., please share your thoughts with committee members or with OCW Steering
Committee members. You can always email ideas to wilson.jenn@uwlax.edu.
Presenting…Sandy Sechrest
by Becky Yoshizumi
The end of another academic year is quickly coming to a close. In our last edition of the OCW
newsletter until fall, we would like to highlight one of the many, talented women who will no
longer be working on campus. Sandy Sechrest is retiring from UW-La Crosse after 27 years of
service. She has been active in OCW for more years than she can remember, as well as serving as
OCW treasurer for much of that time. We would like to take this opportunity to say “thank you” for your many
years of support to the Organization for Campus Women and we wish you the best during your retirement. Sandy is an assistant professor and works as the government
documents librarian at Murphy Library. She started her long career
at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 1976 in the same
position she will be leaving for retirement. Of course there have
been some changes in her duties over the years, such as the change
from paper indexes to electronic, but, since Murphy Library is a
selective depository for Federal & State documents, she is always
quite busy. (We all know how much paper the federal and state
governments generate!) You can also find her often behind the
reference desk on first floor as reference librarian.
Even though Sandy has a love for reading, the library was not her
first calling. After receiving an undergraduate degree in Spanish
from Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois (hometown of Sandy and Wyatt Earp), she completed her master’s
degree in Spanish from the University of Colorado. It was during this time when she was working towards a
doctorate that she landed a job working with government documents at the University of Colorado. This was
enough to get her feet wet when she decided to head back to Illinois and pursue a master’s degree in Library
Science from the University of Illinois. After completing her degree, she was hired at UW-La Crosse.
Sandy has been very active through the years participating on many university and community committees. She is
a member of Women’s Advisory Council, OCW Steering Committee and Symposium Committee, TAUWP, Wisconsin
Library Association Literary Awards Committee, the local community theatre play committee and the local
bike/pedestrian committee, just to name a few. She is also the person who was instrumental in bringing the
Susan B. Komen Jeans Day for Breast Cancer to campus. When asked for a few of the good things that happened
during her involvement in OCW, she replied, “It was an opportunity to meet other women on campus I probably
wouldn’t have met otherwise. The Women’s Advisory Council was formed, and the Foss & Smith OCW Scholarship
has grown from a $100 award to a $1300 award.” With retirement right around the corner, literally, she is looking forward to doing some traveling and more
volunteer work. She enjoys taking theatre trips, attending mystery conferences and, apparently, working. Yes,
working, because she has recently been named the manager of the Friends of the Library Bookshop located in
the Main Street branch of the La Crosse Public Library. Even in retirement it doesn’t look like she’ll have a lot of
extra time to spoil her two 14-year-old cats!
The library has planned a retirement reception in honor of Sandy on Thursday, May 8, from 2:30-4:30 pm in the
Cleary Alumni & Friends Center. Everyone is invited to stop in to wish her well.
WWHEL Leadership Skills Development Workshop
by Ruth Vanderploeg
On April 4, Ginny Kreyer and Ruth Vanderploeg attended a Focus Workshop at UW-Platteville sponsored by
Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership. Pat Alea, co-author of “The Best Work of Your Life” and cohost of CareerTalk on Wisconsin Public Radio, presented a high-energy experience for about 100 women. She
led us through an interactive experience addressing goals, barriers to opportunity, creating a strategic plan for
ourselves, building support systems and helping others through these experiences through mentoring. We
looked at the Life Circle as we each explored and created a vision for the future. This activity included
networking and learning how to expand use of it by choosing a person to interview and concluding the interview
with asking for someone else to talk with whom that person knows.
It was an informal daylong group interactive time for individual reflection and resource exchange. We met other
women from the UW System and had a chance to share work experiences. The Fall WWHEL Conference is
scheduled for Oct 16-17, 2003 at the Ho Chunk Casino in Wisconsin Dells.
Yogalates
Those who participated in this class will be happy to hear that there are plans to offer
Yogalates again this fall. This exercise program is designed for all levels of fitness,
fusing movements inspired by Yoga and Mat Pilates to provide a non-intimidating total
body workout that can help improve strength, stamina, flexibility, posture, balance, and
reduce stress. More information will be forthcoming in future issues of OCW News. Can
you name this pose???
2003 Women In Leadership Forum Continues
May 14 & 28 ~ June 11 & 18
More information is located in the 2003 Women In Leadership Forum Brochure. You may still register and attend
upcoming sessions for a fee of $45 per session. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer to read this file. If you do not already have this software, you
can download Acrobat Reader free from Adobe.
Important Web Sites
OCW (http://www.uwlax.edu/ocw)
Women's Studies (http://www.uwlax.edu/WomensStudies/)
AdvancingWomen.net (http://AdvancingWomen.net)
Career advancement for women in financial services. Female students now have immediate access to senior
level management and human resources professionals throughout the global financial services industry. AdvancingWomen.net is for those female students with a business related education seeking a career in the
financial services industry. To All The Mothers...
Compliments of Anne Galbraith
This is for all the mothers who froze their buns off on metal bleachers at football
games Friday night instead of watching from cars, so that when their kids asked,
"Did you see me?" they could say, "Of course, I wouldn’t have missed it for the
world," and mean it.
This is for all the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their
arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, "It's OK honey, Mommy's here."
This is for all the mothers of Kosovo who fled in the night and can't find their children.
This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And for the mothers who took those babies
and gave them homes. For the mothers of the victims of the Colorado shooting, and the mothers of the
murderers. For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TV's in horror, hugging
their child who just came home from school, safely.
For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And for all the mothers
WHO DON’T.
What makes a good Mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby, cook
dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time? Or is it heart? Is it the ache you feel when you watch
your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time? The jolt that
takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby? The
need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a school shooting, a fire, a car
accident, a baby dying?
This is for all the mothers that sat down with their children and explained all about making babies. And for all
the mothers who wanted to but just couldn't. This is for reading "Goodnight, Moon" twice a night for a year. And
then reading it again. "Just one more time."
This is for all the mothers who mess up. Who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair and
stomp their feet like a tired two-year old who wants ice cream before dinner. This is for all the mothers who
taught their daughters to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for
Velcro instead. For all the mothers who bite their lips when their 14-year-olds dye their hair green. Who lock
themselves in the bathroom when babies keep crying and won’t stop. This for all the mothers who show up at
work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse. This is for all the
mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.
This is for all mothers whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?" in a crowd, even though
they know their own offspring are at home. This is for mothers who put pinwheels and teddy bears on their
children's graves. This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach
them. This is for all the mothers who sent their sons to school with stomachaches, assuring them they'd be just
FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse one hour later asking them to please pick them
up. Right away.
This is for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation. And mature mothers
learning to let go. For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers. Single mothers and married mothers.
Mothers with money, mothers without.
This is for you all. So hang in there.
What would you like to see in the OCW newsletter? Please drop us a line with your suggestions. Contact: Becky Yoshizumi, yoshizum.beck@uwlax.edu, 221 Wing Technology Center, 785-6805.
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